On 7 May, a series of elections will take place in England, Scotland and Wales. In England, there will be local elections across more than 130 councils, as well as mayoral elections in a small number of areas. In Scotland there is a Scottish Parliament election to choose 129 MSPs, while in Wales voters will elect 96 members to the Welsh Parliament, or Senedd.
These are wide-ranging elections that affect people across a large proportion of the UK, and there will be lots of media coverage in the run-up to the votes taking place.
This run-up is known as the election period. For these elections the election periods begin on 30 March (for England), 8 April (for Wales) and 9 April (for Scotland). It’s important that, during these periods, broadcasters follow the special due impartiality rules that apply to the programmes they broadcast on TV and radio.
During election periods – whether it’s for local and national elections like these, or a General Election – Ofcom, as the UK’s broadcast regulator, is responsible for holding broadcasters to account on following these rules and works quickly to deal with audience complaints on election-related matters.
Here we set out some of the rules and process that we follow during this time.
Due impartiality and why it’s important during an election period
During an election period, political parties and independent candidates must be given due weight across a broadcaster’s TV and radio coverage.
This means they must receive an appropriate level of coverage based on their past and/or current electoral support. Broadcasters must also consider giving appropriate coverage to parties and independent candidates with significant views and perspectives.
If a political candidate takes part in a programme about the constituency in which they’re standing, the broadcaster must also give the opportunity for other candidates in that constituency, based on their past and/or current electoral support, to take part too. But if other candidates cannot or do not want to take part, they cannot prevent the programme from going ahead. To help broadcasters to take editorial decisions during the election period, we recently published a digest of evidence of past electoral support such as election results and evidence of current support, in the form of opinion polls.
Fast-tracking election-related complaints
During election periods, we operate a faster process with a dedicated assessment team in place to make sure complaints about election coverage are assessed as quickly as possible.
Our Election Committee, a sub-committee of the Ofcom Board, is also put in place. It includes up to five people drawn from the Ofcom Board, the Content Board and/or Ofcom colleagues, as determined by the Chair of the Committee. For complaints we receive which raise potentially substantive issues that might require redress before the election, the Election Committee can reach decisions on complaints in just a few days.
Complaints about content broadcast on the BBC are handled by the BBC in the first instance, under the BBC First process. We expect the BBC to deal with all election complaints it receives rapidly, and if somebody isn’t happy with how the BBC deals with their complaint, it can be escalated to Ofcom to assess.
Can politicians present programmes during an election?
Politicians presenting TV and radio programmes – particularly news programmes – is a topic that has generated lots of debate recently.
Last year we updated our guidance to broadcasters on this matter, which reflects the modern news landscape and sets guardrails for broadcasters who use politicians as presenters in programmes that include news.
During election periods, the rules are stricter in this area, and candidates cannot act as news presenters, interviewers or presenters of any type of programme. Politicians who are not standing as candidates in a UK election can present non-news programmes - including current affairs - during the election period, provided the programme complies with our usual Broadcasting Code rules, including those relating to due impartiality.
Who decides which parties appear in debates and discussions?
Ofcom does not have powers over the formats or line-ups of debates and discussions on TV and radio. These are decided by broadcasters in discussion with the political parties. Ofcom’s role is to consider, post-broadcast, whether the broadcasters, who have editorial responsibility for what they air, have complied with our due impartiality rules.
As a post-broadcast regulator, Ofcom does not pre-approve, edit or ban party election broadcasts before they air.
Broadcasters are responsible for ensuring that the content of a party election broadcast complies with the Broadcasting Code and have the right to refuse it, or to request edits. Ofcom plays no role in this process.
On election day, broadcasters are not allowed to report details of campaigning or election issues. And they must not publish the results of any opinion polls – this can only be done once the polls close.
For more information, please see our recently published Note to Broadcasters.